Pens, Pencils and Sharpeners for Tanzanian School

Grant Status$-50 needed

Expected Usage of Funding

Supplies, Furniture:

$830

Labor and Salaries:

$0

Transportation:

$200

Raw Materials:

$0

Research:

$0

Administrative:

$0

Other:

$0

Profile

EfforTZ was formed in 2010 to provide a quality education to the orphaned, abandoned, and impoverished children in Tanzania. In addition to providing scholarships, one of the important efforts we engage in is providing the necessary resources for students to use in the classroom to improve their ability to learn.

To be successful in school, students need pens, pencils, books and other materials. Yet there are almost none available to the students in the public primary schools we support. Sadly, these schools are located in districts where the families must struggle every day just to put food on the table. Buying the most basic school supplies is virtually impossible. Yet, without textbooks, pens, pencils and sharpeners the students can't take notes, review classwork, do homework and take tests with the full time allotted as they have to wait for another student to lend them their pen or pencil. To date, we have supplied basic school supplies to over 12,200 on an every other year basis.

Our objective with this project is to make pens, pencils and pencil sharpeners available to over 4,000 primary school children in four impoverished schools annually rather than every other year. The cost to acquire the pens, pencils and sharpeners for 4,000 school children is $830, or 21 cents per student. The cost to transport them is another $200. The cost is low because the supplies are hand-carried to Tanzania by our volunteers.

History

EfforTZ Foundation is a small US and Tanzanian registered charity that works to provide quality educational opportunities to impoverished children in Arusha, Tanzania by providing scholarships to students and books and supplies to impoverished primary schools. EfforTZ is run by dedicated volunteers from the fields of business, nonprofits and education.

EfforTZ believes that every child deserves a quality education and a chance at a life not mired in poverty. Participation in Tanzanian primary schools has been increasing over the past 10 years but has failed to translate into higher enrollment in secondary schools. In a September 7, 2013 article in the Tanzanian Daily News, Dr. Kitila Mkumbo of the University of Dar es Salaam Department of Education, Psychology, and Curriculum Studies, said "the proportion of students passing the primary school examinations (for secondary school admission) has been declining steadily" Among the reasons he noted is the lack of books and school supplies.

EfforTZ's objective with this project is to provide the most basic school supplies needed by the students in four primary schools in Tanzania that the government is not providing and the parents cannot afford. The four schools are the Eluai, Kaloleni, Mwangaza, and Sanawari Primary Schools.

Impact

In 2011, EfforTZ began donating school supplies to some of the poorest primary schools in Arusha, Tanzania. Our goal was to help them improve the quality of the education they were providing to their students. During the 2012 school year, EfforTZ provided 2,720 lbs. of school supplies to four city schools. In 2014, EfforTZ another 1,840 lbs. of school supplies was provided to four schools in Tanzania, three in the city of Arusha and the fourth in the rural area of Eluai, in the Monduli district of Arusha. We have also provided over English 6,400 books and established English book libraries at three educational institutions.

To date, we have we have supplied basic school supplies to over 12,200 students in Tanzania. The schools that participated in this program saw an increase in the number of students gaining admission to secondary school which contrasts with a decrease in admission to secondary school experienced countrywide.

After reviewing the use of the supplies sent with the schools and their students, in 2015 we decided to modify the supply project to target more specifically the greatest supply needs of the students in our four partner schools and to provide them annually rather than every other year.

If our project is funded by Givology's supporters, 1,500 students in grades K 2 will receive 2 pencils and 1 pencil sharpener and 2,500 students in grades 3 7 will receive 2 pens. These basic supplies will allow 4,000 students to take notes in class, review their notes, do their homework, and take tests with the full time allotted rather than wait for another student to lend them their pen or pencil for an entire school year.

Team Credentials

In 2011, EfforTZ began working with four primary schools in Arusha. The board members and volunteers of EfforTZ have been working and volunteering in Tanzania for almost 10 years. Two of our board members are Tanzanian. Our local operations director, also a Tanzanian national, has lived and worked in Arusha for many years. He has also worked closely with our four partner schools for the last five years, principally organizing and coordinating EfforTZ annual volunteer work in the schools and distributing previously acquired books and school supplies.

Updates

In early July we transported the 2nd semester school supplies to Tanzania and they were distributed in late July to our 4 public primary schools and to two private, non-profit educational organizations. This winter we will be transporting another large volume of school supplies to these same 6 educational programs and distributing them for 1st semester of 2018. Thank you to Givology supporters for making this possible! Pictures of some of the students receiving supplies for their grade level at two of our schools follow. [font=OpenSansRegular, arial, sans-serif] [/font][font=OpenSansRegular, arial, sans-serif] [/font]

This EfforTZ Project was established to acquire and transport pens, pencils and pencil sharpeners to 4,000 impoverished school students in very four poor public primary schools in Tanzania. This past month we completed a highly successful school supply drive-- the supplies will be delivered to our partner schools in December. One group of students at the newly-formed non-profit, Precious Primary School in Nshupu, received theirs early. [b]Thank you to Givology supporters for making this possible![/b][b] [/b][font=OpenSansRegular, arial, sans-serif][img]/images/user/25502_14584049524057342038.png[/img][/font][color=#555555] [/color][font=OpenSansRegular, arial, sans-serif][i]The students at Precious Primary School received their supplies early![/i][/font]

This EfforTZ Project was established to acquire and transport pens, pencils and pencil sharpeners to 4,000 impoverished school students in very four poor public primary schools in Tanzania. This past week, pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners were delivered to the more than 1,800 students at Kaloleni Primary School, a public school in Arusha. In addition, blackboard chalk was delivered the teachers at Kaloleni Primary School too. Thank you to Givology supporters for making this possible! [font=OpenSansRegular, arial, sans-serif] [img]/images/user/25502_3543574609290135166.png[/img][/font]